Author: Pathik
Date: 2006-06-12 13:09
For more jazz on bass clarinet, I recommend the album "Blues Bag" by Buddy DeFranco. As far as I know, it's the only occasion when Buddy DeFranco has been recorded playing bass clarinet, and the result is very fine indeed. It was recorded late 1964, just a few months after Eric Dolphy had died, and has been reissued on Vee-Jay records. The CD includes an original album by the Louis Hayes Quintet, which is also good (but no clarinets on this one!)
Another musician who plays truly fine jazz bass clarinet is Don Byron. His CD Ivey-Divey from 2004 contains three tracks on which he plays bass clarinet, and he sounds great. The whole album is very good, probably one of his best for a long time, with less of his idiosyncracies and more of just great clarinet and bass clarinet jazz playing. It's inspired by Lester Young, especially his mid-forties trio recordings with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole.
....and (maybe not for the fainthearted) there's also Anthony Braxton playing and improvising on contrabass clarinet. If you're interested, look for an album called In the tradition or What's new in the tradition. He plays bebop standards like Ornithology and Donna Lee on contrabass clarinet.....it's a bit strange and rather unique, but he sounds great.
In the realm of "big clarinet jazz" though, nobody equals Eric Dolphy. He's in a league of his own. Somebody said in a previous post that "he was probably at his peak on both bass clarinet and alto sax" in 1961 when this clip was recorded. Maybe so, but listen to him on "Out to lunch" and "Last date" from 1964, certainly as good if not better than ever. Also the version of "God bless the child" on this clip cannot be said to be his best version of the tune. The Copenhagen version, Five Note version (both 1961) and University of Illinois version (1963) are all even better than this.
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
